Daily News
Dying in Committee: The Gavel Drops
Thursday, May 10, 12mid. Day 122 of the 80th session of the Texas Legislature. The time when the first big cull of the session becomes a reality.
If a House bill hasn't had its second reading and vote in the House by the end of the day, it's done for this session. Even those that make it through the day have to have a successful third vote on Friday, or they're totally toast. Actually, that's only bills and resolutions that have to be heard by the whole House. Any House bill that makes it on to the Local and Uncontested Calendar has until next Friday until they just become another legislator's failed dream.
Meh, we've gotten this far without 'em; we can last another year or two.
12:01AM Fri. May 11, 2007,Richard Whittaker Read More | Comment »
Election Workers Needed, Many Polls Combined
Don't forget: There is an election on Saturday. It might be easy to let it slip your mind, since there are no high-profile races on this ballot. But there is a minor constitutional amendment to be decided, and in Southeast Austin, there is an unexpired Austin Independent School District board term to be filled. Also, many of the smaller communities in Travis County have city council and bond elections.
Probably because of this lack of glamour, Travis County is cutting back on its usual election day mobilization by combining many precincts. Nonetheless, they still need election workers. Please click "continue reading" below to see the county press release.
3:57PM Thu. May 10, 2007,Lee Nichols Read More | Comment »
Pay up for Parking
On the municipal Monopoly board, no more landing on free parking, says the Austin Business Journal:
Word came from city officials today that the parking lot underneath City Hall will be converted to a pay lot on June 4. Still, visitors to City Hall itself won't be charged with a validated ticket nor will those who shop on Second Street, provided they decide to buy something and get their ticket stamped.
Parking will still be free all day on Thursdays when the City Council meets and from 11am to 1:15pm Fridays for the city-sponsored Live From The Plaza concerts.
The words had gotten out, as what used to be ample parking had filled up in recent months – never mind that the parking was supposed to be free for only a few months after City Hall's opening. It's long been our suspicion that the parking was open to help subsidize the sellers on Second Street, which, having helped build the district, the city has a stake in seeing succeed. The fact their customers can still park for free apparently bears this out.
2:35PM Thu. May 10, 2007,Wells Dunbar Read More | Comment »
TODAY'S EVENTS
Queer Film Theory 101: Footloose
Alamo Drafthouses Slaughter, Lakeline, Mueller, and South Lamar
Russell Crowe's Indoor Garden Party, the Gentlemen Barbers, Lorraine O'Reilly at Stubb's
Wine Night: Pop! at First Light Books
MUSIC | MOVIES | ARTS | COMMUNITY
Adding Wal-Mart to the Agenda
Someone's got something they want to see on next week's City Council agenda:
"Responsible Growth for Northcross (RG4N) requests that City Council place Lincoln Property Company's second Northcross site plan application on the City Council agenda to review the site plan, information from traffic impact analyses and public testimony. RG4N further requests that the City Council vote to deny approval of the application, pursuant to Land Development Code 25-6-141 (A) and (B), due to the excessive burden this project will place upon local streets and arterials and its potential consequences to public safety."
Moreover, the excitable fellows at RG4N breathlessly quote In Fact Daily's reporting that tomorrow, Wal-Mart will release revised square-footage numbers for the Northcross store – will it be something substantial or another PR ploy? If you're so inclined, you can talk about it at RG4N's meeting tonight: May 10, 7pm, at Grace Church of the Nazarene at 1006 W. Koenig.
Full press release below the fold.
10:14AM Thu. May 10, 2007,Wells Dunbar Read More | Comment »
Nailed It!
Sorry to get all Stephen Colbert on you, but Jimmy, bring up the board:
Back on April 18, while discussing the legislative logjam in the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, we said, "Guess that's what happens when you only meet for five months every two years. Now, who's laying odds on a special session next year?"
Now Harvey Kronberg of the Quorum Report has had it from multiple sources that Gov. Rick Perry has made it very clear that he's not happy with House Bill 1892, the big transport bill that is currently sitting on his desk. So unhappy, that is, that he's threatening (drum roll, please!) a special session to try to solve transport.
(For further updates on what's happening in what's left of the session, check out the new Chronicle for our special article about what has happened and what may still happen under the big dome Downtown. Plus, obviously, the insomniac gnomes here at Chronic Towers will continue blogging through this session and any others to come.)
8:41PM Wed. May 9, 2007,Richard Whittaker Read More | Comment »
Scratchman Strikes Again
As a poison pill to House Bill 2160, Rep. Kino Flores' somewhat-ill-considered bill shelling out even more advertising dollars to the Texas Lottery, opponents jokingly offered an amendment bringing back Scratchman. The lotto superhero was apparently quite the popular pitchman – before moral concerns sent him the way of Joe Camel.
Surprisingly, the amendment initially passed, before a successful motion to reconsider passed due to those same moral qualms. Stand by your Scratchman!
… And the bill's delayed until later this afternoon. Will Old Scratch ride again? Stay tuned!
3:44PM Wed. May 9, 2007,Wells Dunbar Read More | Comment »
NEWSLETTERS
Who Could Vote Against Cheap Gas?
With gas prices heading up to $3 a gallon, Texans may be getting a quick, temporary tax break. Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, has slipped a 90-day gas-tax holiday through the House, knocking off 20 cents per gallon if it passes.
He bolted it on as an amendment to Senate Bill 1886, a complicated slab of legislation that clarified the convoluted laws of who was liable to pay gas tax, where, and when. That's clarify, not cut.
"Gas tax relief in my district will provide many families with a greater savings this summer than property tax cuts," said Martinez in a press release. Sadly, this is slightly disingenuous: While it may be true that a gas-tax cut will be friendlier to more people than a property-tax slash that benefits only the wealthiest home owners, this isn't either/or. There's little doubt that the massive rebates will be coming out of the budget over the next two sessions.
While it's the kind of bill that any legislator would find it hard to have voted against come re-election time, it may not be without enemies in the other chamber. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, is a big proponent of index-linking the gas tax, a move which has gained some traction in the influential Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee. It will be interesting to see how Shapleigh's fellow committee member, and original bill author, Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, responds to this change, It's also likely to get hackles raised in the Finance Conference Committee, where balancing the budget is going to prove hard enough even before they had an unplanned estimated $750 million go out of the kitty.
3:20PM Wed. May 9, 2007,Richard Whittaker Read More | Comment »
West Lake Hills = La La Land
Sure, you say – tell us something we didn't know already. But this is clearly cloud cuckoo land.
3:07PM Wed. May 9, 2007,Wells Dunbar Read More | Comment »
The Fraud of Voter Fraud
Today, the House is taking up House Bill 1462, a bill from Rep. Bill Zedler that would allow the attorney general to investigate voter fraud cases in individual counties – currently, cases of fraud must be alleged to cross county lines before the AG steps in.
So what's the problem? "Voter fraud" under AG Greg Abbott means disenfranchising minority voting and enrollment. A story last year in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (now offline) has been brought up on the floor, detailing how an elderly black female assisting with mail-in ballots was spied on by Abbott's GOP storm troopers:
Gloria Meeks is being investigated by the state attorney general's office, apparently in connection with complaints about the handling of mail-in ballots in a school board race. Gloria Meeks said she was just drying off from her bath when she saw the two men looking into her bathroom window. She screamed, setting off a confrontation that is expected to land in federal court today with a tangle of allegations about voter fraud, overzealous investigators, and racism. Meeks, 69, of southeast Fort Worth, said the two men were investigators with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office, working to undermine efforts in the black community to get out the vote. The attorney general's office has prosecuted just over a dozen people for voter fraud since 2005. All appeared to be supporting Democratic candidates, although the office is investigating cases involving Republican candidates as well, said Angela Hale, a spokeswoman for the office.
How bad is Abbott's office? In a guide to spotting voter fraud, he cited registrations mailed in with sickle cell anemia stamps – a largely African-American affliction – as suspect. Because they may be, you know, black.
It basically goes to the heart of the U.S. attorneys scandal at the Justice Department, as prosecutions of faux "voter fraud" are the foundation of Karl Rove's dream of a rigged, permanent Republican majority.
2:01PM Wed. May 9, 2007,Wells Dunbar Read More | Comment »
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